Escape to the Country - BOONAH

This past long weekend we decided to go to the country and explore the great south east, we went to Boonah, we have been meaning to go there for a while now the last time we went we only had one munchkin and now well we are a whole tribe.
 I can't believe how easy the drive was from Brisbane to Boonah, only one hour away and you feel like you are world apart. We arrived early Saturday morning the local farmer's markets were on, they are small but people are so friendly, the kids had a good play in the playground, we met a really nice lady who makes handmade baby goods and hats, we bought one for baby munchkin.
 After the markets we spend quite a while around Boonah town centre, everyone is so friendly in small country towns. We didn't have time to go to the Winery and Lavender farm but I have been there previously and from memory it is a good way to spend some time wandering the fields of lavender or enjoying a meal and some of the wines they produce.
 We got a lovely surprise phone call from a friend late Saturday, she was also there for the long weekend in her country home so we decided to make the trip there again on Sunday for morning tea with them, it was a lovely way to spend our last day, the kids had a great time playing in the cubbyhouse and riding the billycart that my friend’s husband had made, while we enjoyed a cuppa and some cake that I had made for the occasion, as well as enjoying the amazing view from atop Boonah overlooking the whole town and surrounds.
 The Boonah Society Show is on the 17th may if you are interested in an old fashion country society show this may be your cup of tea.
 Well we had a lovely long weekend but now I am back to reality a pile of washing awaits me.

Cheers,
Karla

Easter 2014

It is the end of Easter and what fun it has been!!!

The munchkins are growing fast and I really enjoy this stage of their age, they get so excited about the Easter Bunny visiting I love how I have used the bribe of

" if you don't behave I will call the Easter Bunny"

" if you don't finish your food I will call the Easter Bunny"

Well the Easter Bunny came and what fun we had hunting for those eggs and even more fun eating those eggs.

One of my favourite things at Easter is our Family traditions both my husband Farmer Joe and myself grew up painting eggs and I am so happy that we are continuing our traditions with our munchkins, the ceramics egg collection is rapidly growing.

Well the Whitecottage is still Bunnyfied and now it is time for all those bunnies to go back into their boxes and until next year.

I hope you had a fantastic Easter.

Do you have special traditions you follow?

Would love to hear.

Cheers Karla

Home Sweet Home

After a couple of days of R&R visiting the Country Doctor and the Country Lady and a long drive back home (mainly from the detour we made) it is nice to be back at the Whitecottage.

I must say that I quite enjoy coming back and seeing our Garden and being greeted by our trusty Girls (aka hens), after a long drive it is just nice to spend time in the garden giving the plants and vegies a good drink of water and actually admiring the garden.

We did a small dash to the local fresh and vegie store to pick up milk bread and of course some flowers to cheer up the Whitecottage.

Dinner if you can call it that! well really who wants to cook we are kaput, dinner was very continental and the kids enjoyed it.

Well I have some cupcakes cooling down and the munchkins are watching their usual Saturday movie night.

So it is Good Night!

I hope you have a fantas-bulosous Easter Sunday.

Karla

Easter Bunnies Cookies

We are in Easter Celebration mode here at the Whitecottage. This is a good project to keep the munchkins busy and who doesn't love homemade cookies.

Was fun to make and fun to eat. I hope you give them a go.

The cupcake lady's cookies

250g butter chilled and chopped
3 cups plain flour
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 TBSP milk
1 TSP vanilla extract

ICING

1 cup icing sugar
food colouring
a dash of hot water

Method

1. place all ingredients in food processor and process until comes together into a dough

2. lightly flour a surface and knead dough until smooth

3. divide dough in half wrap in cling wrap and chilled for 30 minutes

4.pre-heat oven to 160c fan force and line baking trays with baking paper

5. roll the dough and cut shapes from dough

6.place on tray and bake for 10 minutes
 7.Cool on wire rack then decorate

ICING

Mix icing sugar, food colouring in a bowl add hot water slowly in small dash until you are happy with the texture then dip the cookies and let them dry.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!

DON'T FORGET I ALSO HAVE A HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE EASTER CHOCOLATES ON THE BLOG.

Cheers,
Karla

Children Easter Crafts - Easter Bunny Bunting

The Whitecottage is in Easter Celebrations mode, plus it is the school holidays and the kids have been eager to do some baking and crafts.

Here are some easy peasy ideas to make your home more cheery and keep the children entertained it is a win win for all.

Easter Bunny Buntings

These buntings were so much fun to make, the munchkins had a ball painting them and telling me why they were painting  the bunnies that way, while we let them dry we baked some bunnies cookies.

Materials - these are things that we mostly keep at home so it costs nothing to make and brings so much joy.

* Paper plates  *Paint   * Marker pen   *Scissors   * String   *Hole puncher

*Draw with a marker pen a bunny face per plate and cut to shape
*Let the fun begin the munchkins had the best time colouring them in
*Let them dry, once dry punch holes on the bunny ears and thread the string

YOUR BUNTING IS DONE READY TO BE ADMIRED BY THE WHOLE FAMILY.

Happy Easter!!!!!

5 Shot Challenge

Last week my Instagram friend @lesleegtg invited me to take the 5 shot challenge, this is where someone nominates a word and you and in this case ME take a photo each day with the word assigned to me.

My word was FUN

It  got me thinking about what I do every day, how my daily life rolls, I must say I had fun photographing what made me have fun for that day.

Here we go my FUN in five shots.

 DAY 1 - FUN is deciding what am I going to wear each morning, yes I am just a mum I clean, cook, bake, mulch the chicken house, do gardening and volunteer at school and other places, I enjoy doing all these tasks looking good and wearing a good lippie.

 

DAY 2 -  FUN was spending a couple of days at Noosa with our wonderful friend and her munchkins she was kind enough to let us stay with her there where 2 ladies and 6 children age 6 to 1 Years old. It was fun to swim, dig holes in the sand, have late night girlie talks.

DAY 3 - FUN was baking a chocolate buttermilk cake and share it with my friend and the munchkins it is just fabulous that such a simple thing such as a cake can bring a smile to the little ones and older ones being us.

DAY 4 - FUN having one last swim and an ice cone on our last day of our mini vacation. The day was just beautiful the water at Noosa was just perfection the kids had so much fun swimming and building sand castles. We missed the ice cone man the day before so this one tasted even better.

 DAY 5 - FUN was going to Roma St parklands with our little munchkins oldest friends, my friend and I met when our eldest were few months old we met at the CBD library books and rhymes our friendship started as first time mothers then I had 3 munchkins she had 2 munchkins and now there are 5 little beautiful munchkins who continue to be good friends even though they are busy with school, sport and all the things little munchkins do.


On my final day of 5 shot challenge i finished with what is important in our lives family and friends.

Why don't you set yourself a shot challenge? you will be surprised as to how much you tend to do on a normal day without even realising it.

Oh if you have time pop over to Instagram and check my photos and leslee @lesleegtg specially Leslee's photos  if you love flowers and home decor they are just dreamy.

Cheers,

Karla

 

 

The Cupcake Lady - SCONES

This morning we had the pleasure of having the Country doctor and the Country lady popping in for a cuppa, they were in town and they were on their way back home to the country.


I only had a short time to prepare something and who doesn't love a good old scone and a cuppa. I know we did and I hope you do too.

 The Cupcake Lady's Scones

ingredients

3 cups of Self- raising flour
80g butter, chilled & chopped into cubes
1 cup milk
Jam & Cream to serve

How to

*Pre-heat overn to 180 C fan forced

*Place all the ingredients in a food processor to make the dough

*Sprinkle flour on a flat surface and knead the dough

* roll dough with a rolling pin to approx. 2 cm tall cut round shapes with an egg ring

* Place them onto a lined baking tray leaving approx 2 cm spaces to allow scones to rise

* Sprinkle the top of scones with flour and bake for 20 minutes

*and VIOLA!!!!!

*Serve hot with Jam and cream.

Enjoy

Karla   
aka The Cupcake Lady

 

Easter Chocolates

Easter is Just around the corner I made these little Easter Chocolates the other day as Easter treats they were a hit to say the least.

They are the easiest quickest treat you will probably ever make. I bought a magazine from Woolworth and got a free Easter chocolate mold and spatula but any mold would do you can find them anywhere at the moment.

What you need

Mold
spatula
400g milk chocolate ( dark or white which ever you prefer)


 How to

*In a pan boil water over the stove 

*place a heatproof bowl on top of the pan ensure that water does not touch the bowl

*place chocolate and stir until melted, fill chocolate mold and refrigerate until firm 
 
And VIOLA!!!! I told you they were easy and people always think you are so clever for making your own customised chocolates

Enjoy 

Karla

Discussing the big issues: Colour run in the washing machine

The other morning I washing baby munchkin’s clothes, all her pretty pink clothes, I washed them the same way as I always do, there was no new technique or new setting on the washing machine but to my horror there was a tiny little dress that was BLACK!!!!! yes black, I opened the washing machine door to find a full load of previously pink clothes now purple.

Yes I like purple like any other person but not when all of my munchkin’s clothes are ruined. Then I was telling one of the mums at school drop off my terrible tales of colour run washing, yes it was news worthy, I thought for a minute, I should tell the school clerk as she can print it in this week’s school letter.

"Karla the cupcake lady come washing lady for the morning ruined her baby's clothes why? she probably had cupcakes on her mind"

The devastation was terrible all those beautiful Nicobelle designed dresses once pink and floral now PURPLE.

Then a miracle happened the mum I was happening to tell my horror story told me about this product she used to remove colour run, no soon had she finished telling me about it when I was down to Woolies to get myself a stash.

This stuff is FANTASTIC. 

I filled the laundry tub with hot water and place 2 sachets and left it to soak for a few hours and VIOLA!!! my clothes were returned to their beautiful self there was one dress that needed a second soaking but I couldn't be more happy as I was planning to keep that dress as a keepsake.

Who knew there was such product? maybe everyone knows about it and I was the only one in the dark but now it is in my shopping list for those horror laundry moments.

and next time I do little miss munchkin laundry I will check that there is nothing that will give me a heart attack.

Well all safe and colourful or pink I should say, and now I must make myself a cuppa.

Cheers,
Karla